New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-06-19

heroic. q DOOR unstable imaginative demi-poet OF
rural Virginlan, who has gift OF music and al
eye for nature and general unftness for the pro-
saic work of his own little world. He marries for
love sweet girl who dies at the birth of her first
child The father, bereaved and broken, wnnders
away and is unheard of for years. Then, with the
beginnings of civil war, he returns more nomadic
| than ever, to find his son grown up and stranger
He raises company to fight for Virginia and is OIL
again. When the rebellion collapses few weary
4 strsggers return to the village. and he among
| them. Meantime his has married q bitter
shrew, who rules him. The father, by this time
| aging. has impulsiyely conveyed his home to his
| son. The shire wish wife discovers this. and hence
| forth grudges him O place under her roof. But for
| the compauionship of little child itself another
victim of the harridan daughter in-law his Life
| would be unalleviated wretchedness. But the old
man and the little boy are drawn together ana o
warm love springs up between them They console
one another, and for a time life Is toleraele even
under the tongue of vixen who hates both
Presently the old man, who in bis time has yielded
more than to drink falls again. and this Is the
beginning of the end, which is tragic. The main
thread Of the story somewhat too sombre for the
amusement seeker, perhaps, is relieved
by side-sketches of a moro cheerful charac
ter, and In especial by love affair
which introduces the reader to quaint and
primitive order OF housekeeping. There Is plenty
of local color here and doubt the fruit OF much
honest observation. But though the work is honest
and sound far as it goes, 1t gives evidence that
Miss BAYLOR is not so much at home In 1t as she
was in the scenes of her brilliant novel ION Both
Sides" chief difficulty In the employment OF
such phases Of life is the tendency to ascrlbe to
half-deveoped men and women too large share
of that sensibility which really belongs almost
wholly to higher style Of civilization One re-
suit of this tendency is to cast gloom over scenes
which should not be so invested. Content and
even happiness is quite possible in the meanest
surroundings and it is a mistake however natural,
to assume that the feelings of those who know no
other than sordid conditions resemble those OF peo
pie to whom such conditions are simply shocking
and revolving Ignorance uncleanness, sloveniness,
coarse ways of living and general unfamilarlty
with the habit Of thinking are quite compatible
with cheerfulness. 1t Is questionable whether our
Puritan ancestors were really so sour and gloomy
as history represents them. The nature of man is
elastic. 1t is capable of being " subdued to what
it works IN, like the dyers hand ," and since Pess-
imsm can never be good working system tho
ONLY safe conclusion Is that we strike general
average we shall find the sum of contentment in
any community larger than the discontentment,
no matter hat the character of the prevailing con-
ditions
Realization of this would guard many otherwise
clever and panstaking writers from
kind of exaggeration which interferes with the
of their representations. There is
indeed one kind Of American life which mist be
painted in sombre colors to be truthfuly pictured,
and that Mr.. Howe has admirably described in his
" Story of Country Town." But that is not the
life of the majority of American country communi-
ties. Miss Baylor is quick to seize every pictur-
esque aspect of her subject and to gid even COM
monplace things with poetic suggestions. Her |
introduction is beautiful panoramic review, |
in more than respect of Hawthorne. |
Her story can hardly be called novel. II has no |
plot 1t is rather series Of pictures lightly con-
nected but interesting and well drawn The tragic |
end unlikely to please the novel reader, who is
almost always an optmist but any other termlna-
ton would have been unnatural and therefore not
Finally, II the book Is not so strong.
sustained and comprehensive as that of Mr. Kirk
and 1t is in the right direction, 1t is conscientious
is bright and 1t Is far above the average OF con-
temporary fiction In essentials.